Improvement in grain-drills



' TTNITIED STATES PATENT FFICE.

SHERMAN R. NYE, OF \VINOHENDON, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR TO HIM- SELF AND CHARLES J. RICE, OF SAME PLACE.

lMPROl/EMENT IN GRAIN-DRIL'LS.

' Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 135,932, dated February 18, 1873.

To all whom it may concern:

' Be it known that I, SHERMAN It. NYE, of Winchendon, in the county of Worcester and State of Massachusetts, have invented certain Improvements "in Machines for Sowing Seeds and Fertilizing Material, 820., of which the following is a specification:

Figure 1 of the accompanying drawing is a central vertical longitudinal section, and Fig. 2 is a rear view of my improved machine.

The present invention relates to certain new and useful improvements in machines for sowin g seed, 850., and plaster or other fertilizing material; and has for its principal object the sowing of the seed, &c., by automatic means in an even, expeditious, and effective manner. My improvements consist in a device to accommodate the mouth of the body or hopper to different-sized seed or other material desired to be used.

In the drawing, a represents a bottom frame provided with shafts b or pole, and having on the sides suitable upright standards 0 for the support of axles, on which revolve wheels cl and 6. Connected with and extending up from'the frame a is a hopper H or body, 9, formed with a sloping front, g, and a sloping back, g, inclining toward each other at the bottom, where they form a longitudinal outlet or mouth, j. The inside of the front g is provided at the bottom with a longitudinal metal plate, 1'. Connected with the sides of the hopper g, at the rear, are adjustable standards 70 70 formed with slots to admit of their up and down adjustment on, and of their being held by, screws l, or otherwise suitably arranged to allow of their being readily raised and lowered. One of the standards is is formed in the upper portion with a curved slot, on, which receives a thumb-screw, m, provided with a suitable screw-nut and washer and connecting with a cam,.n, attached to near the end of a longitudinal rod, 1), which with and operated by a longitudinal arbor, '0,

one end of which turns in a bearing supported by a vertical bar, w, attached to the frames to and q,- and the other end being supported by the side of the hopper g and the bottom of a pivoted lever, 00, which is provided for the purpose of throwing the arbor 'v inand out of gear. The arbor 'v is connected with and revolved by a gear-wheel, 00, that engages with and is actuated by a gear-wheel, a, connected with, so as to be revolved by, the wheel 6.

The operation of my invention is as follows: Seed or fertilizing material, &c., being deposited in the hopper g, and the machine being propelled, the arbor v is, by the action of the gear-wheels a0 and y, to which motion is imparted by the wheel 6, revolved so that the cam or cams a are alternately carried against and released from the plates t, so that the back or apron s turning on the rod 10 is carried back and forth so that the bottom of the back or apron s is brought toward or carried from the bottom of the inclined front g, so as to close and open the mouth j through which the seed or fertilizer, 850., is thus at regular intervals allowed to fall so as to be evenly deposit.

ed on the ground. The apron or backsis raised or lowered so as to enlarge or lessen the outlet or mouth j, so as to permit seeds, &c., of various sizes to be used and to increase or diminish their flow by means of the cams n a connected with the rod p and operating 011 the top of the sides of the hopper g, they being adjusted and held in the desired position by the thumb-screw m traveling in s the curved slot m, and by means of the adjustable standards k k or by any other stitable arrangement of mechanism for obtaining like results that may be preferred.

Having thus fully described my improvements, what I claim as my invention, and desire to have secured to me by Letters Patent, 18-- A back or apron, s, turning on a rod 19, provided with eccentric cams n n adjusted by a thumb-screw m, engaging in a curved slot, on, formed in one of two adjustable standards, k is, connected with a hopper or body, 9, of a sowing-machine, so as to raise and lower the apron or back 8, substantially as and for the purpose specified.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification'in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

' v SHERMAN R. NYE.

Witnesses:

A. H. MERRILL, E. S. MERRILL. 

